Well, probably one of the biggest achievements of anyone who works in the film industry is to go home with an Academy Award trophy. That baby right there can surely earn you quite a lot of prestige and admiration from your peers! Research has also shown that having an Oscar on your mantle makes you live longer. Wait…what?
Oh yeah.
Numerous studies conducted over the past 20 years have discovered that Oscar-winning actors live way more than three years longer than actors who were only nominated for a prize. However, it’s not because of the luxurious gift bags, or the salary increases that an Oscar win brings.
In an interview that took place on the “10% Happier with Dan Harris” podcast, the founder of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Ian Robertson, went on to explain how increased life expectancy—81 years for Oscar winners versus 76 years for nominees—can be the result of the accolade making an actor’s life less stressful.
An actor who has been “taken out of the race of competitive evaluation” by winning the most prestigious award in the industry could worry less about failing or not being recognized. Unfortunately, the greatest source of stress for our brains is the fear of negative evaluations of other people. So what happens when you win an Oscar?
It’s like you buy yourself unlimited status. Ultimately, it seems that being secure in the sense that you feel like you “made it” can really create confidence, which in turn can lead to more success. “We simply cannot underestimate the sense of not achieving progression towards our goals or the negative health effects of that,” he added.
As Ian Robinson, psychology and author: “We can all get a mini version of this, if we take needed action in the world towards goals that are meaningful to us in a very careful, but progressive way.”
Even if the 2022 study also noted that Academy Award winners seem to be more “surrounded by people who are interested in their well-being,” and they also “tend to eat right, exercise consistently, health sleep schedule and avoid drug misuse,” the researchers what’s truly interesting is that they avoid stress by obstacles.
It has also been discovered that having the award “might soften a humiliating rejection or simply insulting review by preserving their peace-of-mind and aiding to buffer the hypothalamic-pituitary stress responses.
However, you don’t really need to start acting to get the Oscar magic. There are plenty of steps that can be taken in your day-to-day life to enjoy some of the positive effects of winning a golden statuette. “We can all get a glimpse of how it would feel like, as long as we take action towards goals that are meaningful to us in a careful, and progressive way.”
Having such goals, and making progress towards them, can truly give you an important and beneficial sense of purpose. “A strong sense of purpose usually generates goals, triggering actions, which also give success experiences, which later build enormously positive benefits, both physical and mental,” he added.
Now let’s shortly unpack the most notable Best Picture Winners.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
William Wyler’s film regarding three veterans coming home at the end of the war still delivers an immense emotional kick. They all come from different classes and backgrounds. However, they struggle terribly to readjust to civilian life. Some say the film is too pious and self-righteous.
However, it deals quite frankly and movingly with both the soldiers’ issues, as well as those of their families and friends in understanding them. It also won its Best Picture Oscar in the same year “It’s a Wonderful Life” was nominated.
An American in Paris (1951)
Probably the best MGM musicals showed impressive artistry. This is by far the greatest. First off, it’s not just the choreography or Gene Kelly’s wildly energetic performance in the role of an aspiring artist in postwar Paris, but it’s also their choice and use of color and sound.
The ballet sequence at the end of the movie is right next to the one of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in “The Red Shoes” as an ideal example of filmmaking in which every single element balances just right.
Casablanca (1942)
Producer Hal Wallis at Warner Bros had quite a knack for overseeing films that could have been both mainstream and still possess a social conscience. Well, not only did “Casablanca” have Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains in it, but with also touched on important topics about refugees, betrayal, and wartime politics.
The script written by Julius and Philip G Epstein came up with incredible lines of dialogue about gin joints, rounding up the usual suspects, and inserting the song “As Time Goes By.” All of these are still quoted to this day.
On the Waterfront (1954)
Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront” can be easily seen as the director’s attempt at justifying his own behavior. What do we mean by that? Well, naming names in front of the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, during the communist witch hunts.
In fact, its politics are both complicated and contradictory. It’s also beautifully acted. Marlon Brando must have given in this movie one of his greatest performances, but so did Terry Molloy, the dockworker and pigeon fancier who could have been a contender in life as well as the boxing ring, if only he had had the support of his brother when he needed him most.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
It was so easy to dismiss this movie as a jingoistic widescreen epic. However, David Lean’s picture of TE Lawrence makes quite an astonishing viewing seen in 70mm. It also offers a subtle portrayal of Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), the main character who is both the quintessential English hero and the quintessential English outsider.
All About Eve (1950)
Joseph L Mankiewicz’s drama revolving around a young actress on the rise and the established star with a career she wanted to usurp boasts some of the spiciest, most caustic dialogue exchanges in a Hollywood Best Picture winner.
The brilliance of Bette Davis as the star and of Anne Baxter as the ingenious but still utterly ruthless young pretender was matched by George Sanders’ amazingly acidic performance as a theater critic.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Well, it’s not an exaggeration to say that this is one of the greatest sequels in Hollywood history. The film comes as a continuation of its predecessor, “The Godfather”, winning the best picture Oscar and out-stripping it in the brilliance of its craftmanship and performances.
From Gordon Willis’s impeccable cinematography to the parallel stories of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone as the crime family boss in the late Fifties, as well as Robert de Niro’s role as his father Vito years before, everything is nothing less than perfect. The rival Best Picture nominees in 1974 also included “Lenny”, “Chinatown”, as well as “The Conversation.” All should have won that year.
Unforgiven (1992)
The West was somehow seen as an anachronism. Well, so was Clint Eastwood when Eastwood made his blood-soaked masterpiece. He played Will Munny, a farmer and family man. Gradually throughout the movie, we get to know more about his past as a gunman. “I’ve killed many women and children. I’ve murdered just about everything that walks or crawls at one time to another, and I’m here to do the same to you,” he told old rival Gene Hackman.
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